Skype in the Classroom

Recently I had the opportunity to  facilitate a Skype session between Mrs. McAvene’s Spanish Three class and a class of English language learners in Barcelona, Spain.  Although Skype has been utilized by a number of ACPS teachers, this was my first opportunity to use this program in a classroom environment.  This session came about as a result of a digital story telling exchange her class is doing with Ana Guuisande’s  English class in which ACPS students, and their Spanish counterparts are creating videos depicting life in their respective areas.

              While working on this project  we learned that, although there is a six hour difference between us, there is a window of time in which we are both in school and in our respective language classes.  Once we had figured that out, it didn’t take long for someone to come up with the idea of a Skype exchange.  I tested Skype out from a student laptop computer one day while at NHS and found that it indeed worked.  

              So, one Friday morning, as the students were getting settled at the beginning of the school day,  I used an iPad and opened a Skype session with the class in Spain.  We had to reopen it about three times and then stay in the corner of the room where the connection consistently worked.  The students  approached the iPad about three at a time.  We had an interesting time to say the least.  The Spanish students suggested that they try to ask questions in English, and that our students should respond in Spanish.  We quickly agreed to this, and just as quickly seemed to abandon it in practice.  We did note that the students in Spain seemed to be no better with English than our students were with Spanish.  For example, when the class was about to end over in Spain, the students told us they were about at the end of their “journey.” 

              Ana’s students wanted to know if our students were familiar with any Spanish singers, if any of our students were licensed to drive yet, what sports we played, etc.  We also learned that the things the textbook suggest don’t necessarily work:  when they asked about  football, we tried to get clarification by following one of these suggestions—“Do you mean football Americano?”  That question seemed to baffle the Spanish students, but, we eventually straightened it all out.

              Everyone involved seemed to really enjoy this experience and we will probably be trying it again.  One of the lessons I learned from this experience is to use one of the student laptops with a camera, rather than an iPad  (so that by doing so we would then be able to project the image and use speakers so that the whole class could see and hear better.)  I’d also recommend that students prepare questions in advance and rehearse asking them in the language they are learning. 
              As part of this same project, I also worked with Mrs.Brittingham's French class and they also had a Skype session, except theirs was with French learning students living in Spain.  Here is what Mrs. Brittingham had to say following the session: "This project has been a cultural eyeopener for my kids and me as well.  I think it's more about our similarities than our differences.  My group is a multicultural group and we were all involved in the skype portion of the project with communication taking place in English, Spanish, and French...  If I do (this project again), I will be more specific in my guidelines to the students ... in the organization of the Skype project."

              At Nandua's fall athletic banquet they annually induct new members in to their athletic Hall of Fame.  This year one of the athletes who was being honored in this way accepted the award, via Skype, from California.  Mr. Reese, Nandua's athletic director pulled this off on his own.  However, if any of you would like to try a Skype session in one of your classes, and don’t feel confident enough to try it on your own, let your friendly, local ITRT know and we’ll try to be there to help make it happen.